In computing, an object refers to a compilation of attributes (i.e., object elements) and the respective behaviors (i.e., methods or routines) applied to the attributes. An object may have one or more attributes, such as a name and a value. An object directory in a computing environment may be used to define the attributes associated with an object in a data structure referred to as a schema. The schema may also define the related hierarchy of the attributes for each object.
A directory uses objects to store and reference data in the directory. The schema defines the types of objects that are available to the directory service. The schema is stored in the schema partition, which is also defined as an object in the directory. The attributes and classes in a directory are stored in the schema partition as directory objects that are called schema objects.
When an application locates the schema in the directory, the application may read the schema to discover what types of objects and properties are available. Because the schema is stored in the directory, applications can locate the schema by using the same process used to locate any other object in the schema.
If an object attribute is not already defined in the directory's schema, then the directory administrator will have to add application specific attributes to the directory before the application can be successfully executed. That is, the schema needs to be extended to include the application specific object attributes before the application can use the attributes.